Home schooling: One family's story

By jburns

Created 02/28/2013 - 1:45pm

POSTED: Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 1:45pm

UPDATED: Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 2:10pm

Baton Rouge, NBC 33 — The Martinez children had asked their Dad if they could be home schooled for years. And every year, he said no…until this year. Mom, Jennifer Martinez says husband Kyle came to her when he found out his sister was home schooling. 'Hey, I found this.” He told her. “We're gonna do it."

It was Connections Academy, an online public school. They applied to the program and found out within weeks that ten year old Selah had been accepted. Jennifer said it was scary, but, “The program is really, really good.” According to her, each lesson has an assessment. She says Selah is very dedicated, takes her time and does what she has to do.

As for Selah, she says "It pretty much says everything you have to do. And it's not confusing. It just says exactly what you have to do."

Unfortunately, Connections Academy has only a limited number of spots available, which is why Selah’s brother, 13 year old Kyle Ryan is still attending school away from home. He says he can’t wait till he can do his school work at home though so he can spend more time with his Dad Kyle, who works many evenings. He agrees, it will be a blessing when Kyle Ryan can be home too.

"Obviously, the more time we spend with our kids, the closer our family will be." That’s Kyle’s philosophy. And it’s one that’s based in experience. The Martinez family had tried home schooling before. The first time was thirteen years ago. But back then, they found the curriculum, resources, and support just weren’t available.

Kyle says, "I saw what it takes to home school--on Jenniffer-cuz I'm not a teacher. It takes a whole lot from the family to do a traditional home school”

"Some people think that because you're doing home school, you're not really doing as much work”, she says, “but it really is...from hour to hour. A subject will take an hour or a little bit more than an hour. And that's four or five subjects a day so it really is a lot of work.”

But it’s work, the all agree, is worth it to have more time together as a family.